Healthcare Information Technology

Become EPCS Certified

Certify your EHR or ePrescribing Application as Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances. Learn more »

Determine If Your Healthcare Security Product Is Ready for HHS Breach Safe Harbor Certification

Use our free SecureEHR Online Product Profile to assess whether your Healthcare product qualifies for HHS Safe Harbor from Breach Reporting. Learn More »

Understand InfoGard's EHR Certification Process

cert_seal_sm.png

Use InfoGard's ONC-ATCB Process for decrypting technical language and guiding you through the procedures for becoming EHR certified.
Learn More »

HHS Safe Harbor from Breach Reporting for HIT Users

U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services Reported Data Breaches from September 2009 to July 2011 - Almost 11.7 million individuals have been affected.

In Healthcare, a breach is defined as the loss of Protected Health Information (PHI). If a loss of PHI occurs, it must be reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The graph above shows the recent history of reported breaches affecting 500 or more patients.

Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)/Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act Breach Notification Rule, a Breach Safe Harbor relieves Healthcare providers and hospitals from the requirement to report a breach to the HHS OCR. Not only are penalties, fines, and other costs avoided, but also the damaging negative publicity an organization must endure after such an event.

 Breach Safe Harbor requirements were established under the HIPPA/HITECH Breach Notification Rule by the HHS Interim Final Rule (45 CFR Part 160 and 164), which relies on the Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2 (FIPS 140-2) to provide the cryptographic security requirements as the basis of the Breach Safe Harbor.  See the following for details:

A Breach Safe Harbor is afforded when PHI is protected by EHRs or other Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) products in compliance with specified National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Standards and Guidelines. If you are interested in receiving more information about InfoGard's Breach Safe Harbor services, please call us at 805.783.0810 or use our Contact Form.